SHB Da Nang will play at home to Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA) at 4.30pm on Sunday, 11 January.  Both teams are determined to win the match to gain their first league points of the season.

SHB DN have a marked shortage of funds and, as a result, the club has recruited only 2 medium-standard foreign strikers, Melquiades Gomez and Anto Pejic.

Spanish striker Gomez, 31, used to play for Real Betis and he has experience in the V-league having played for Xuan Thanh Sai Gon in 2013 and Dong Nai last season.  He scored 6 goals for Dong Nai and scored on his debut for SHB DN in the match against Thanh Hoa last Sunday.

SHB DN and SLNA players

25-year-old Croatian striker Pejic is renowned for his powerful headers thanks to his 1.93m height.  This is his first season in the V-league having previously played for teams in Slovenia and Macedonia.  Whilst Pejic has yet to prove himself to local fans, SHB’s coach Le Huynh Duc is confident that he has a perfect combination in this strike duo.

SHB DN has a number of young players including Ychaly Eban, Vo Huy Toan, Ho Ngoc Thang, Tran Huu Thu, Phan Van Long, and Dang Anh Tuan who are all 21 or younger.  Few in the squad have Vietnamese national team experience, but there is still a lot of accumulated experience from playing in domestic and international football tournaments.

SHB DN’s coach Duc has over 8 years of coaching experience in the V-League and he was named the best coach in 2012.  Meanwhile, SLNA’s coach Ngo Quang Truong does not have many years of experience in national large-scale football tournaments.